Searching for that dream job? This post is for you.

It may sound cliché, but a new year is usually a time where people tend to throw away their old bad habits and embrace new routines that will ultimately lead them to where they want to be.

For many of us, we know where we want to be, but we question how we can get there. And for the rest of us, we are just hoping we can end up somewhere other than our parent’s basement. These statements are especially true for the millennial generation who live a “different” life than their parents and the generations before. Before even entering high school, the idea of pursuing post-secondary education is drilled in our heads. If you fall into the handful who are not necessarily “cut out” for the academic life, it was implied that those people are the ones who would have trouble finding their way.

Flash forward to June two-thousand-and-something to 400-and-something smiling faces making their way down a stage to accept an expensive piece of paper that we’re told would almost guarantee us our dream job. It feels great, and it really is an accomplishment, but the idea of having your dream job waiting for you may not always be the case.

The Great Job Hunt

Let’s face it, we all know about the influx of graduates that are hunting for jobs, making the competition extremely high. Employers want to hire for experience, but we don’t have any because we can’t find jobs, and end up settling for second best because we get discouraged very easily while we were in search of our dreams.

But lets try and put a positive spin to this; a spin that will make you feel a little less dizzy, and little more motivated. Because trust me, there IS a path to get there, you just can’t see it yet.

1) Find the value in everything you do.

Whether it’s your part-time job, a volunteer opportunity, or a new challenge in the workplace, everything will serve its purpose. Someone once said to me: “I can teach you the core skills to be successful in this job, but I can’t teach you the soft skills, the ones that are transferable.” During the Recruitment and Selection process, experience is a huge deciding factor when selecting the best candidate. But, your soft skills are just as important. Being a people-person, having good communication and organization is either in you or it’s not. The transferable skills are the ones you usually pick up on in your first jobs, and the great thing is that 1) you can develop them young; and 2) they will never become obsolete.

With the right frame of mind, you can train yourself to find value in every experience.

2) Don’t stop living your life because you think you don’t have it together.

Sometimes, you might feel like giving up. Because millennials live in a social media-driven society, we are exposed to the successes of our network and network’s network on an every day basis (really, how did that guy who was always in the smoker’s pit end up buying a house straight out of uni?). This could sometimes make us feel behind if we are not progressing at the same level. Everyone will move at a different pace, in different directions, but we ultimately all want the same thing: happiness. The only way to achieve it is to start and not stop. Start networking, start applying, start travelling, whatever. You just have to start.

3) Find the Actual Path to More Success

Whatever path you end up finding yourself on, know that it will never be a one-way street. You have the authority to challenge yourself and be the realistic version of who you want to be. One final statement of comfort that always stuck with me is: “You always end up where you intended to be…You just have to believe”.

PSA: Just because you got your first (second, third or fourth) “no”, it doesn’t mean its always going to be that way.

You may have heard it already, or it might be on its way, but you are probably going to hear the word “no” at one point or another in your job search. Use this as motivation. One thing I have learned is that when you hear your first “no”, one of two things will happen: you will either lose your passion, or fall in love with it even more. If the passion is lost, let it be. Rediscover a new one. If you grow more passionate, keep hustling until you find what you want.

Domenic, or Dom for short, is an enthusiast for all things media. Somewhere down the line, he still thinks he'll make it big in the music industry. His goal is to live the million dollar lifestyle with his dream girl by his side. Until then he'll keep inspiring people one blog post at a time.